HEROES
Season 3 Episode 1
Volume Three: “Villains”
Chapter One: “The Second Coming”
Written by Tim Kring
Directed by Allan Arkush
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So.
If it’s one of the things that would occasionally irk me about Heroes, it would be those scattershot episodes where so much was going on in the 40+ minute running time that the hour would end up featuring a host of headless chickens running about, and would ultimately feel unsatisfyingly choppy.
Well, despite creator Tim Kring being in the writer’s seat for this first half of the Season 3 2-hour opener, this is one of those squawking, stutter-skip chapters.


I’ll give Kring props for the reveal that the gunman who took down Nathan at Volume Two’s close is a scarred Peter from 4 years in the future, who’s about to actually be killed by that future’s Claire, before he ‘ports back and guns Nathan down.
And though that does open up a whole new can of worms, it’s still probably the best idea here…


I guess the hugest letdowns would have to be the Hiro-Mo double header of “how irritatingly stupid can you get?”
Hiro, despite being told by Papa Sulu (via pre-recorded DVD message) not to open a safe containing a secret that could destroy the world (why couldn’t it have been a nice secret?), does exactly that, because he’s bored, only to have that secret—one-half of a formula; could it be the very formula Mo uses to come up with his magic syringe? More on that later—stolen by some speedster (Brea Grant).
The annoyingly impulsive time-traveling idiot—did he not learn anything from Volume Two?—then travels to the future, to see how the formula destroys the world. And there, not only does he witness betrayal at the hands of a powered Ando, but also the apparent destruction of Tokyo.
So he returns to the present, now suspicious of Ando, and sets off on his newfound quest (a quest he’d never had to have gone on in the first place if he’d only listened to Papa Sulu) to retrieve the half-formula.
Idiot.


Mo, meanwhile, apparently having grown tired of the Two Men and a Molly sitcom, shunts Molly off to God knows where (this happens off-screen, and we’re never really told exactly where she was tossed; Maya just claims that the youngster’s unfindable and safe now).
He’s then about to go jetting back to India (gods, does this man have no conviction?) when Maya almost does him in with her bleeding eyes bit, though she calms down before anything permanent happens.
This serves up a “Eureka!” moment for Mo, and he realizes that the key to the powers are in the adrenal glands, and not the blood, as postulated by Papa Suresh.
So he tests his theories, and voila, cobbles up a serum in a syringe that he claims will give a normal human powers! (So much for trying to figure out how to take away Maya’s powers… Couldn’t he have just tweaked one of those Company serums which could take away powers, like the one they used on Nikki last season? Make one that didn’t have that nasty side-effect of a little case of death?)
And after rambling on about breakthroughs and quantum leaps in science and the advancement of the species and “if only I had powers I might have been able to save my father,” Maya realizes that Mo could be getting that Mad Doctor gleam in his eye, and tells him to destroy whatever’s in the syringe.
We see idiot Mo at the docks, torn, about to toss the syringe into the sea (where it could have ended up being washed ashore somewhere and shot up by some poor addled junkie). But of course, we all know he’ll inject himself with it, and he does.
And he’s about to get rolled by some punks, when he displays some superhuman strength (he crushes a punk’s gun), and does an athletic flip to his feet.
So now he’s got powers, despite the wholly irresponsible way in which he got them. (Did this man not see The Fly? Nothing good can come out of self-experimentation. And did he not hear a word of what Maya said?)
Idiot.


There are a number of other bits in here that are also rather annoying.
We learn that Sylar doesn’t eat his victims’ brains, but just seems to study them, looking for a particular part of the brain, and somehow absorbing his victims’ powers that way.
That in itself isn’t annoying.
Rather, it’s how exactly did Sylar find Claire in Costa Verde? Why did Claire think that doing the Halloween bit and hiding in a closet would keep Sylar out? And why the hell didn’t he just TK the damned closet doors open?
And of course, Sylar figures out his next step by rifling through some very important-looking files that Mr. Bennett left behind, which are now in a conveniently-labeled box on the kitchen counter.
Ay, madre de Dios!


At any rate, we find out that Claire is different and special, and that she may very well be immortal, as Sylar apparently now is, as well (having successfully absorbed her powers).
We also find out that Linderman is alive, and is responsible for healing Nathan (yes, Nathan doesn’t die here, just as he didn’t die as a result of Volume One’s cliffhanger).
We also find out that someone who looks exactly like Nikki/Jessica (yes, Ali Larter is still in the building), yet named Tracy, is showing interest in the revived Nathan (who’s now spouting some blather about divine intervention and being God’s angel). Naturally, we first see this Tracy person wearing some sexy bedroom thingie.
Sigh.


And we have the scarred Peter-from-the-future somehow shunting the real Peter’s consciousness into some powered goon who’s incarcerated in Primatech’s Level 5.
At least, I think that’s what happened.
But if so, where’s the real Peter’s body?
And why is Mr. B in a cell? I was led to believe that at the end of Volume Two, he returned to the Company’s fold, in his previous capacity of operative.
What gives?


I was happy to see Cristine Rose though, and Mama P reveals that her power was indeed the dream bits, which Peter inherited.
Confronting the scarred Peter-from-the-future (who gunned down Nathan because supposedly, that moment when the world was told about the existence of powered individuals, was the moment his future went to sh!t), Mama P claims that now, this is a different timeline, all thanks to scarred Peter-from-the-future’s shooting of Nathan.
Hrrmmm.

I was also happy to see Ashley Crow, though that was for the briefest of moments, as she enters with Lyle to find a bloodied Claire…
Hopefully we see more of her in the second hour.

Oh, and Parkman gets ‘ported off (by scarred Peter-from-the-future) to some out-of-the-way wilderness with an apparently new Heroes–related symbol, which appears to be a globe that’s cracking, or breaking, with stuff gushing out of it.
We also see that symbol as graffiti in the Mo-gets-powers scene.


I dunno. There’s a lot in this hour that doesn’t feel right somehow.
Part of it is the sheer number of characters battling it out for screen time, yes, but I think part of it is the writing too.
I can’t recall a single moment here that can come close to many of the truly excellent and moving bits in the Heroes pilot. The Tim Kring that wrote that chapter doesn’t seem to be the same Tim Kring who wrote this one.
And, overused as it is, I love Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” but here, it just seems like the easy, lazy way out.
Why couldn’t we have just had one of Mo’s poignant voice-overs instead? (I am aware there are some critics of those bits, though I’m generally not one of them.)

At any rate, I’m looking forward to the second half of the season opener, if only because I’m hoping things pick up considerably, and the show gets back on track…

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com, ew.com, latimes.com, and gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: “Generations”
Chapter Eight: “Four Months Ago…”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Greg Beeman
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Okay, for an episode designed to answer most of the questions that have piled up since the season kicked off, this one still feels a tad scattershot—and this, with only two scenes of the Wonder Twins, an obligatory intro for Monica and Nana, and no Claire, Mo, Hiro, or Parkman—but hey, I’ll take it if only to get it out of the way, so we can forge on to the end of this volume.

And, in keeping with the spirit of getting things out of the way, we first see the Wonder Twins at Alejandro’s wedding, as he gets married to a girl who’s only too willing to cheat on him on their wedding night.
Already unhappy and suspicious of Alejandro’s blushing (yet skanky) bride, Maya catches her getting hot and heavy with someone other than Alejandro, thus triggering the first disastrous outburst of her power: everyone at the reception dies, except for Alejandro. Maya then runs away, saying she killed them all.
When next we see Maya, she’s become a nun, and Alejandro’s found her after months of being on the run. Everyone thinks she’s poisoned the wedding guests, and Alejandro’s actually turning her over to the policia, when her power kicks in. Alejandro does the “calmate” thing, and he realizes that, as Maya asserts, this is about the both of them, so, off the Wonder Twins run.

From the smallest portion of the episode, to the largest: Peter, and how he ended up amnesiac, in Ireland.
Kirby Plaza: Nathan zooms up into the night sky with a Peter-about-to-go-nuclear. Nathan’s already getting bad burns, and Peter—after a quick explanation as to why he suddenly can’t fly—makes his brother drop him, just before he explodes, blasting Nathan even further.
Before Toasty Nathan can go splat though, Peter (who can now, conveniently enough, fly) catches him and brings him to hospital. Guess who’s there: Bob, and Elle, who zaps Peter unconscious.
When Peter regains consciousness, Bob tells Peter he’s a friend of the elder Petrellis, and that he’s here to help Peter: 30 years ago, they discontinued work on a vaccine to eradicate powers. Now though, they’ve started the research up again, and Bob offers Peter the chance to live life without fear of harming anyone he loves ever again.
Peter bites.
After getting a haircut from the sociopathic Elle (who likes to get kinky with some jolts of electricity), Peter’s kept in a cell, given regular doses of a cocktail designed to suppress powers. One guess as to who’s the occupant of the adjacent cell.
Ding! Adam/Kensei! And wouldn’t you know it, but they’re actually able to communicate with each other! (Given how dangerous Adam is, shouldn’t he have been in solitary confinement? That’s bad enough, but to actually put anyone in the cell next to his! Gross criminal negligence. And they didn’t have the cells wired with surveillance equipment?! Man, I thought Bob was smart…)
So Adam gets to chit-chat with Peter, eventually winning him over and convincing him that Bob’s a baddie. And what seals the deal is when Peter makes a request to see his family, and Bob flat out refuses. To sweeten the get-away plan, Adam says he can cure Nathan’s burns with a small amount of his blood.
So Peter goes off his meds, and five days later, uses D.L.’s phasing ability to walk into Adam’s cell, then to walk on outta there with Adam.

Meanwhile, Monster Face Nathan’s confined to hospital, where Granny P is his constant companion.
Then, in a great scene (perhaps the best of the episode), Heidi—who’s now walking, thank you very much, the late Mr. Linderman—visits, and has an exchange with Granny P in the hall.
Nathan’s told her everything, about the powers, about the plan to let New York go ka-blooey, everything, so Granny P does spin control, and feeds her the same lies she told Peter, about the mental illness that runs in the Petrelli family, and that, quite obviously, Nathan’s got it too.
That scene between Cristine Rose and Rena Sofer blows everything else in this episode away. Granny P’s like this alluring black widow, spinning her web, hypnotic as she gets Heidi to tow the line. There’s such simple, yet awful menace in the way she touches Heidi’s arm…

After the breakout, Peter and Adam pay Nathan a visit, and Adam injects a syringe of his blood into Nathan’s IV. Immediately, Nathan’s burns begin to heal.
But the escapees have to book.
Adam has just given Peter the plane ticket to Montreal, when Elle and the Haitian catch up to them.
Elle zaps Peter in the back, setting his shirt on fire. Elle gives chase to Adam, while the Haitian goes after Peter.
Peter shrugs off the flaming shirt, and runs into a whole bunch of shipping containers. The Haitian corners Peter in one, easily overpowering him, since the Haitian nullifies any powered individuals in his vicinity. And since Granny P helped him once, now the Haitian does his best to return that favour: it’s his attempt to give Peter a new life, by taking away the memories of his old one, and leaving him shirtless, handcuffed, and amnesiac in an otherwise empty shipping container. (Oh, and he places his necklace around Peter’s neck.)
I guess he mush have a lot of faith in Peter, ‘cause, who’s to say that, shirtless, handcuffed, and amnesiac, he wouldn’t have starved to death in that shipping container?
And, since we don’t see any more of Adam, we can only assume he managed to get away from Elle. Or, gasp! The sociopath let him get away.
Also, whether or not Elle is Bob’s daughter is still up in the air.

In another Kirby Plaza aftermath scene, D.L. is saved from the gunshot wound of Season 1’s climax.
Concerned about their lack of medical insurance (Michael Moore, where are you now?), Niki is surprised to learn all the bills have been paid, by… Michael Moore?
No.
Bob.
Bob, who claims to be cleaning up the mess left by Linderman, and who offers Niki the chance to voluntarily enter a facility while she undergoes chemical suppression of her powers. At this point, Bob makes an interesting comment regarding how some people react to the reality of these powers: those unable to cope with the mental strain end up creating other personalities, as with Niki.
Niki’s hesitant to leave her family, but Bob warns the meds have some side effects. So Niki’s a lot logy, and when she can’t even smile at Micah’s 11th birthday—what’s the design on Micah’s cake? The 9th Wonders St. Joan cover!—she stops taking her meds.
And just when she’s about to start a new job at a car dealership, another personality pops up: Gina, who takes over and high-tails it to L.A.
Meanwhile, D.L. takes a job to make Micah proud: fire fighter! (Which was, I guess, preferable to D.L. over Micah’s birthday wish: for his family to be the Fantastic Four Minus One.)
There’s a minor tease at this point, as the audience is made to think, oh, is this how D.L. dies? In the line of duty?
But no.
D.L. tracks “Gina” down, and finds her in a club, where he takes her away from some scuzzy lowlife clubster, who shoots D.L. down in cold blood.
At the wake, we have the New Orleans crew making their brief appearance, where Nana offers Niki her help.
Bob also shows up, and exchanges a Meaningful Glance with Niki.

Okay, let’s see. Other than a few present day scenes: Nathan arriving at the pub in Ireland, the now-virused Niki being released back into society, and Peter and Adam in Montreal (which bookends the chapter, so that ostensibly, the entire episode is Peter using his power to heal the broken synapses so he can remember the past four months; of course, how he is also “remembering” things concerning the Wonder Twins and Niki is beyond me), that’s pretty much the episode.
So, while it does address some questions, it also quite obtrusively, ends up being a narrative bump, off-setting the momentum that Chapter Seven managed to build, as we’re made to sit through an hour of catch-up.
Yes, I absolutely loved the hospital scene between Granny P and Heidi, and yeah, Elle sure is one sick puppy, but the entire scenario of how Adam got to Peter and flipped him (and how Peter ended up in that shipping container) got way too incredulous for me.

But, like I said, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the story as we rush on up to the last three chapters of the volume, and that alternate ending we’ve all been hearing about; see Afterthoughts (22).

(Behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com; TV Guide Heroes cover art [3 of 4] by Michael Turner, courtesy of tvguide.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Four: “The Kindness of Strangers”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Adam Kane
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

We rebound from the previous choppy, scattershot chapter to this more satisfying, lean and mean episode.
We drop the feudal Japan and the amnesiac Peter in Ireland subplots, and there’s also no sign of Niki working with Bob. And as the “Salvaje” clue did suggest, the powerless Sylar subplot oh-so-conveniently collapses into the Wonder Twins’ thread, as Maya, Alejandro, and the American kid-in-the-Mexican prison-whose-car-they’re-fleeing-in (aka Derek, played by TW Leshner, soon to be seen in the upcoming Timber Falls) almost run over a prostrate man lying in the middle of the road.
And yes, it’s Sylar, though he introduces himself as “Gabriel.”
Maya, trusting fool that she is, tells Sylar that they’re headed for New York too, since she needs to meet Papa Suresh, brandishing the book for Sylar to see. And when Sylar says that he knows Papa Suresh, Maya is overjoyed, while Alejandro is rightly suspicious.
At a stopover, Derek sees a newspaper with the police sketches of the Wonder Twins and calls Sylar over. Derek says, ironically, “There are murderers in the car.” Sylar tells Derek to call the cops while he keeps the Wonder Twins busy. But he instead picks up the brick that’s being used as a paperweight at the newsstand, and bashes poor Derek’s head in (off-camera).
Back in the car, Sylar confronts Maya with the paper, and when she says, “Yes, that’s us, but it wasn’t murder,” Sylar says, “Well, Derek’s calling the cops on you.” Maya freaks, and her bleeding-black tears-from-the-eyes power kicks in, and Sylar starts to die. But Alejandro does the whole “calmate” thing, and Sylar is saved. Shoot.
He now realizes that he’s in the car with two powered people. So he drives off, while the Wonder Twins think that they’re just ditching Derek, but who’s apparently dead, while a cockroach crawls over the bloodied brick.

Over in post-Katrina New Orleans, Micah is staying with his cousins Monica (Dana Davis, from TV’s The Nine and the upcoming Prom Night remake) and Damon (Carlon Jeffery), and their grandmother (or “Nana,” played by Nichelle Nichols, who we saw ever-so-briefly last episode).
Monica (who has quickly proven to be the most interesting new character this Volume) works at the Burger Bonanza, with high hopes to get her family out of the still-depressed area. But her hopes are dashed at every turn, and all the while, she slowly begins to realize that she is not exactly normal.
Apparently, her power is to insta-learn anything she sees, so she learns how to make a tomato flower and whoop a$$, Rey Mysterio-style, all from the TV. At this point, it’s unclear whether Monica can insta-learn anything she actually sees, or if the TV is the proper conduit. (Micah, her cousin, has an affinity with machines, after all.)

Meanwhile, in Costa Verde, Claire, mindful of her father, at first tries to distance herself from West. But flyboy is insistent and asks her out on a date, and, if she is unimpressed by it, promises to leave her alone.
So West ends up flying Claire to the Hollywood sign, where they sit and bond amidst some good blue screen (a lot better than last episode’s Japan stuff). Claire says stuff happened back in Odessa, and she’s not sure if she can really trust anyone anymore. West, of course, says learn to trust me. Jump off the sign. (Yeah, I say that to all the people I’d want trusting me too.)
And when Claire is convinced, she does so, and of course, flyboy catches her, and there’s a mid-air kiss.
When Claire gets back home, late, she and West realize that her excuse (library) isn’t going to hold water. So Claire, in getting Mr. B off the scent (he suspects it’s a boy), says she tried out for cheerleading. She then manages to convince Mr. B that this is something she needs (“one normal thing”). So Mr. B, poor schlub, relents, on the proviso that she doesn’t start dating anyone yet.
Claire, little liar, agrees.
Oh, and the Haitian shows up, presaged by the wind chimes, and says he has a lead on the other Isaac paintings. They’re headed to Odessa.
Texas, you ask?
Nope. The Ukraine.

Over with the Petrellis, Granny P confesses to having murdered Daddy Sulu, while the wounds she received in the attack two episodes ago appear to have been self-inflicted. It’s clear though that she’s covering something up. (Or perhaps protecting someone…)
Knowing Parkman is reading her mind, she “tells” him to just accept her statement and leave it alone, or everyone will find out about “us” and “what we can do.” (Note though that we have yet to see what Granny P’s power actually is…)
After a brilliant scene between Cristine Rose and Adrian Pasdar, Granny P’s handcuffed and wheelchaired out to the hoosegaw.
Meanwhile, Beardo Nathan first visits his two sons, and tells them their grandmother is in hospital and could use some cheering up. The pint-sized Petrellis don’t approve of Beardo Nathan, so he shaves off the facial hair in time to have his scene with Granny P before she is carted off by the fuzz.
Parkman enlists No-Longer-Beardo Nathan’s help by first revealing he can read people’s thoughts, then showing Nathan the death threats received by Daddy S and Granny P, which both came from a photograph Nathan recognizes. A photograph with his parents in it, that had some “ten, maybe twelve people.”
So let’s review. Daddy S said there used to be twelve, and now there are nine.
Check. Pop Petrelli, Charles Deveaux, and Linderman, casualties of Volume One.
Nine.
Daddy Sulu then does a pavement dive.
Eight left.
Now, when Nathan searches for the photograph, Parkman reveals that the ex-Mrs. Matt was actually pregnant with Matt’s scummy partner’s kid. (How this impacts on the “Five Years Gone” implication that Matt’s kid has powers remains to be seen.)
Then, when Nathan finds the photo, who should be in it as well but Bob, someone who may or may not be Joanna Cassidy, and… dan-da-da-daaan, Papa Parkman!
So Parkman takes the photo home and asks Molly to help him find Papa Parkman, who apparently stole a lot of money from some people, and abandoned his son when Matt was 13. But when Molly sees the photo (and somehow I saw this coming), she throws a hissy fit and refuses.
Papa Parkman is the Sauron baddie, whom Molly dubs “the Nightmare Man.”
Parkman, bull-head twit, tries to strong-arm Mo into making Molly find his MIA father, but in the end, it’s Molly who says, “Okay. I’ll help you find him.”
Molly does the stick pin-on-the-map thing and (yes, apparently we all see this coming except for idiot Matt) gets “caught” by the Nightmare Man, going into shock, while Parkman hears her screaming in his head.
To her credit (and Matt’s bone-headed prodding), Molly gets out city, apartment building, and room number, before she enters Catatonia City.
Repeat after me: Parkman is an idiot.
Oh, almost forgot. Somewhere along the way, Nathan sees Monster Face Nathan in the mirror…

So, I liked this chapter a lot (hey, Mrs. B and Mr. Muggles! Yahoo!), and Monica, as I mentioned above, is an interesting character being played ably by Davis. And though I could have done without the quick snippets of file footage of Katrina damage (which seemed a tad heavy-handed), Monica seems like a very real, honest character, with some nice rapport with Micah, so I’m looking forward to seeing where that subplot goes.
And then there’s Claire, who continues to be a rather substantial, involving character; I think this is the first time I’ve really been disappointed with her, because of that whole lie about not seeing any boy at the moment.
To be fair though, she was lied to for many a year by her adoptive father, so maybe she just sees this as a fair turn-around. And she of course has no idea about the 8th Isaac painting-yet-to-take-place. Though I do suspect that West (as far as the painting goes) is a red herring, and that shadowy someone with Claire is someone else altogether (my pet theory as to the killer’s identity).

I also enjoyed this episode since it feels the least-cluttered since the season began, so here’s hoping there’ll be more chapters like this to come.

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com; behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Two: “Lizards”
Written by: Michael Green
Directed by: Allan Arkush
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
(SERIOUSLY…)

Okay. Let’s backtrack.
When the whole Takezo Kensei thing was introduced in Season 1, with Hiro being a time traveler, my first instinctive theory was that Hiro would wind up back in time and actually be Kensei, thus inspiring himself to be the man—and hero—he grows up to be. That sort of circular symmetry fascinates me to no end.
Then, I tweaked that theory when I began to suspect that Daddy Sulu’s power could have been immortality of some sort, and that he was incredibly old, and that he had actually been Kensei, and he was really telling Hiro stories of himself.
Well, as it turns out, my first theory was right. Sort of.
Back in feudal Japan, Hiro is forced to wear Kensei’s armour to rescue Yaeko, and in an interesting play on the conventions of masked heroes, refuses to take off his mask when Yaeko requests to lay eyes upon his countenance.
Hiro’s efforts though, are enough for Yaeko to be smitten with Kensei, and when she expects Kensei (the real one) to help her rescue her father, Kensei agrees to go along with the harebrained scheme hatched by Hiro (aka “The Carp”), a scheme which will turn him into the hero history purports him to be.
But in feudal Japan’s version of a drive-by shooting, Kensei is plugged with arrows and apparently dies. For a few seconds, I thought, that’s it? That’s Anders’ role in all this?! So Hiro really does get to be Kensei?
But Hiro pulls out one of the arrows, and, lo and behold, the wound closes up! Hmmm. One must keep in mind, this Volume is entitled “Generations.” (Though Heroes writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite seem to imply that identical powers do not necessarily equate to an actual filial connection.)

Meanwhile, back in the present, Parkman’s first case as a detective winds up being Daddy Sulu’s murder. And since Granny P’s fingerprint was lifted off the photo fragment found on Daddy S, Angela’s brought in. Granny P, canny little minx, not only twigs onto the fact that Parkman is reading her mind, but also reveals that (gasp!) she slept with Daddy S a long, long time ago*. (Man, somewhere during this Volume, we really better see a flashback episode with the young Petrellis, Linderman, and Nakamura… Lots’a hanky panky there…)
Even as Nathan arrives at the police station however, she is attacked in the interrogation room, by an apparently invisible presence. She’s saved though, and the mystery of who is targeting the previous generation of Heroes quickly takes center stage. (I have a preliminary pet theory of who might be the killer, but it’s too early to spring it, and I’m still trying to reconcile what we see of Daddy S’ death, and the attack on Angela.)
Also, Daddy S’ messy date with NY pavement was apparently one of eight paintings by Isaac that have yet to come to fruition, and that painting is the only one of the eight that HRG’s seen.

In other present day subplots, amidst a sea of questionable accents, the amnesiac Peter escapes his Irish captors, only to have to save Caitlin (Katie Carr, Hayden Panettiere's co-star in Raising Helen, where she incidentally also played a character named "Caitlin") from some dastardly goons. This complicates the problem that began when Peter was found in the shipping container that was supposed to have a whole caboodle of iPods in it. So Caitlin’s brother, Ricky (Holt McCallany, from David Fincher’s Fight Club and CSI: Miami), makes a deal with Peter: help us with this one small job to pay off these goons and get them off our backs, and I’ll give you this box that contains everything we found on you, “Peter.”

And while that’s going down in Ireland, Maya and Alejandro are coming ever closer to America. Here, we find out they’re twins, and that Alejandro seems to be immune to Maya’s power, and that he can somehow cancel its effects—“Wonder Twin powers, activate!”—thereby preventing the death of whoever is struck down by it. (The question that arises here is, does Alejandro’s power work on Maya because they’re twins, or can his power affect others as well?)

In yet another subplot, Mo’s first day on the job brings him to Port-Au-Prince, where a third superpowered someone contracts the virus. And who should it be but the Haitian himself! He seems ready to face the judgment God is meting out to his sinner’s a$$ and is initially unwilling to receive Mo’s help. He gets it anyway, and when he finds out that Mo is working for the Company, he steals Mo’s memories (or so they make it seem).
When Mo contacts HRG though, who steps into Copy Kingdom but the Haitian. Yahoo! Partners reunited! Part of their agenda: find the other seven Isaac paintings-yet-to-take-place. (Could they be paintings of the other murders-about-to-happen? Jeez, I hope they don’t bump off Granny P… You all know how much I love Cristine Rose.)

In other Butler/Bennet news, Mr. Muggles does indeed miss his time in the spotlight, in that other far away life in Odessa, as he indulges in some masochism by watching a dog show on TV. Poor Mr. Muggles.
Oh, and Claire’s new ride is stolen.
She’s also chafing under the “keep your head down” edict (with a great line with a lot of resonance and honesty: “I can’t not be who I am, whatever that is”; it sounds awkward, I know, but Panettiere pulls it off brilliantly) and is curious about her powers’ limitations and mechanics. This subplot leads to a scene that so outdoes the autopsy scene from Season 1, it‘s not even funny.
It’s a great, audacious bit that segues neatly into the chapter’s cliffhanger, as West witnesses Claire’s regeneration in action.
And when Claire rushes out into the driveway, West is gone, baby, gone. But Mr. Muggles is barking, up, at the sky.
Look up, Claire! Look! Up!

So this episode seems more cohesive that the season opener, or maybe it’s because I’m acclimating to each subplot and how it works in the overall scheme of things. (I’m also finding the groove of the feudal Japan subplot, which is the one I had the most trouble with in the previous episode.)
Of course, now I’m wary of the other subplots that have yet to kick in and how they’ll ultimately fit in with everything else that’s going on: there’s the still unseen Niki-Micah-D.L. trio, as well as Sylar, and the yet-to-be-introduced Kristen Bell. (Another Trek alum, Nichelle Nichols, is also still waiting in the wings.)
Again, I hope the writers juggle those balls well…

* They better not spring some sort of “Oh, by the way, the end result of my little dalliance with Daddy Sulu is Hiro,” ‘cause that would make Hiro half-brothers with Peter and Nathan, and a half-uncle to Claire, and things would get preposterously incestuous…

Parting shot: This totally escaped me before: the necklace amnesiac Peter was wearing—I’d completely forgotten that that was the Haitian’s!
Hmmm, something owned by the Haitian, on an amnesiac’s person…

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com.)

HEROES
Volume One Chapter 23
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
“How To Stop An Exploding Man”

Opening with a reprise of Mo’s introductory voice-over in the pilot, and sporting the most frivolous chapter title in the entire volume, Heroes says “Sayonara” till the fall, and it’s a moving, inspiring, and thrilling television hour that puts a capper on the past season’s breakaway hit.
Given the body count last chapter though, it’s a bit funny and anticlimactic that we don’t actually see anyone die onscreen this time out.

Granted, there are some lives apparently hanging in the balance (D.L. is still bleeding from the gunshot wound; Parkman is bleeding from several gunshot wounds), and Nathan may never be able to have another one of those Moments when he lands in the middle of things to save the day, but we never actually see an onscreen death here.
Who knows, maybe Nathan just flew really high up, then flew off, letting Peter drop, and explode, then flew back to catch Peter before he went splat on the ground. But then again, that’s assuming Claire’s cellular regeneration is powerful enough to counteract a nuclear blast in the first place. Given though that Peter apparently has a central role in the Heroes saga, it’s probably safe to assume at least one Petrelli brother survives that atmospheric detonation.
(I should also point out that in Greg Beeman’s blog, he says of Chapter 23: “Some of the characters you have come to know and love, in fact, DID die last night.”)

And since I’ve already mentioned them, let’s take a look at the brothers Petrelli first.
Peter’s pivotal destiny continues to unfold, most pointedly in his witnessing of the past, and his dialogue with Charles Deveaux.
So we’ve got the confirmation: Charles was one of the earlier generation, and knew Grandma P.
And in a fantastic scene, we see just how steely and manipulative this woman truly is*, while at the same time getting a sense of the close friendship she shared with Charles. It is also here that Peter discovers just how much his mother really knows, and what she really thinks about him. (Man, Peter had a lot to process here, huh?)
Nathan, meanwhile, flies away with one of this chapter’s Moments, as he redeems himself by defying Grandma P. and returning to help Peter and to save the day.** It’s just too bad Hiro wasn’t there to see it…

… since he wound up in 1671, with that samurai dude Daddy Sulu told him stories of, as an eclipse darkens the land.
Cliffhanger, anyone?

And back at Kirby Plaza, a bleeding Sylar slinks away into the sewers.
These people. First Mo blows icing Sylar, now Hiro. He really should’ve just beheaded Sylar right after stabbing him. You know, just to make sure.

On other fronts, we finally get Mr. Bennet’s given name (Noah) and he’s reunited with Claire; Niki and D.L. find Micah; Molly goes off with Mo (though not before she meets Micah; hmmmm).
So all’s well that ends well.
Except for Hiro being in 1671 Japan.
And Sylar still being alive.
And Linderman still being dead.
Oh, and that Sauron-sounding baddie Molly prattles on about (who’s apparently way worse than Sylar, and can “see” her when she tries to find him).
Well, I guess we can’t really blame them. I mean, they do want people to come back for Volume Two, right? And let’s face it, we really do wanna come back for it too, anyway.

“So much struggle for meaning. For purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic. And the mundane. The simple human need to find a kindred. To connect. And to know in our hearts that we are not alone.”
-- Mohinder Suresh

Parting shot: Well, at least Ando’s safe and sound in Japan.

Parting shot 2: In Greg Beeman’s blog, he also stresses: “We are all ABSOLUTELY COMMITTED to not repeating ourselves next season – but in bringing you a freshly conceived show.”
Sweet.

* Angela Petrelli has the potential to be TV’s biggest Queen B*tch of the Universe since 24’s Sherry Palmer. (And Cristine Rose is astounding.)

** Thus justifying Peter’s faith in him, and proving to the audience that, despite what Grandma P. may think, Charles was right, and hope does win out over strength in the end.

(Image courtesy of comicbookresources.com.)